Tokyo Midtown

[softgrey]

the fish bag is funny- and the fish scale cuff bracelets are certainly interesting...
but i confess that i like the kid holding the fish best of all...


i was in the japanese market yesterday and they had some super gorgeous fresh fish that isn't what we usually see in the supermarket-
ie- 2 different types of mackerel...
*runner- i remember you mentioned mackerel some time ago and i often read about how good they are for you...
they were whole fish with the most GORGEOUS skins you can imagine...
silvery shades of blue with so much detail and sort of polka dot patterns or tiger-y stripes...
one was spanish mackerel (aka- aji) - which i never knew before but is apparently found in the waters off Florida and the southern USA...
i wanted to buy the fish just because they were so pretty!
but i really didn't know what i would do with them...
...
i think i may be braver next time and just grill them...

instead-inspired by that, i got some sashimi...
salmon, tuna, mackerel
my first time ever buying sashimi~!
i almost never eat sashimi (except in japan or in some very very very nice restaurant)
it was totemo oishii~
and having them like that helped me to really appreciate the different qualities of each fish...
yattah!


some pretty mackerel...
this looks like a good way to have it!


qdtiya, dhaleb

 

[softgrey]

hmm...
issey mikaye's influence and his company and his collaborators all continue to produce really inspiring work...

i love those windows with the folded cardboard...thanks runner!
all one piece- like his concept for garments...
and recycled- like his concept for pet bottle aka elttob tep

i had not realised fully that his whole umbrella company is A-net...
i found these on the humor.jp site from his plantation line...
i'd wear these together as an outfit...


any of the pants and either jacket...

 

[softgrey]

...

oh good lord...just kill me now...
the piece de resistance~!
from ne-net
humor.jp

 

[softgrey]

manga is what parents don't want children to see and what children really want to see, while the universe of disney might be what parents want to make children appreciate. manga is something to be ridiculed, abased or despised. something low, indecent, wicked. aberration, obscenity and nonsense. but that which can melt what has been hardened, frozen and brittle. the "negative classicist", wilde, schiele, bataille, adorno, mishima, carol christian poell, shion sono.....in a way dangerous, but just honest.

just by chance, today i got to see a cover of "ladies home journal" from 1953...
it's a big magazine for housewives of that time...
one of the big main headlines on the cover was this-
"Do Comic Books Create Child Criminals- What Parents Don't Know About Comic Books"

So- I guess that is/was a common idea...
of course, some comics/manga are more violent than others, but i guess there has always been some subversive element there...


lostsoti

about the author
Fredric Wertham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fredric Wertham (March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981) was a German-born American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children.[1] His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent (1954), which purported that comic books are dangerous to children. Wertham's criticisms of comic books helped spark a U.S. Congressional inquiry into the comic book industry and the creation of the Comics Code. He called television "a school for violence", and said "If I should meet an unruly youngster in a dark alley, I prefer it to be one who has not seen Bonnie and Clyde."[2]

*i suppose if he was around today he would be writing about video games and music videos...
.........

 

[runner]

instead-inspired by that, i got some sashimi...
salmon, tuna, mackerel
my first time ever buying sashimi~!
i almost never eat sashimi (except in japan or in some very very very nice restaurant)
it was totemo oishii~
and having them like that helped me to really appreciate the different qualities of each fish...
yattah!

sasuga captain! (I should come to eat blue cheese now)

yes aji would be good, grilled simply with salt. or if it's really fresh, more simply raw as in aji no tataki.
my fave way of having aji is aji-fry, deep fried aji.
though I don't know what it's like over there, sakana-ya-san ( the shop who specializes in dealing with various kinds of fishes) over here cuts it and removes certain parts of it in front of you. for example, if you say to them you are going to grill it, they specifically cut it for you so that all you need to do is to salt and grill.

saba (mackerel), iwashi (sardine), samma (saury) would really be good as sashimi. but they are gone much sooner.
they have to be seriously fresh if you eat them as sashimi. so we often do something to them, using say fire. I like tsumire very much with iwashi.

though the thing I'm worrying about is whether we are talking about the same kind of fish or not, like the possibility that what we call iwashi might not be exactly the same as what is sold over there by the name of sardine.

 

[runner]

from the stage this spring, the tale of genji (which they will do next spring too if anyone is interested)

The main character, Hikaru Genji will be performed by Ebizo. The performance will also express his darkness of mind and the lingering thoughts hidden inside himself.

from kyotoguide.com

roughly speaking though, to see the heian boys as ancient new romantics might be a way that makes them somwhat familiar to the modern western eyes.

kabuki-bito.jp

 

[softgrey]

from the stage this spring, the tale of genji (which they will do next spring too if anyone is interested
from kyotoguide.com

roughly speaking though, to see the heian boys as ancient new romantics might be a way that makes them somwhat familiar to the modern western eyes.

kabuki-bito.jp

so true!
i remember a t-shirt/top i had in those days...
white with a big red circle on one shoulder with thick black lines radiating from it...

sleeveless with puffy padded rings circling around the armholes...
sooooo japanese...
like the bottom of some kimonos...


it was one of my fave things and i can still see it in my head..
wish i still had that...


the make up above is sooo stunning~!

 

[softgrey]

sasuga captain! (I should come to eat blue cheese now)

yes aji would be good, grilled simply with salt. or if it's really fresh, more simply raw as in aji no tataki.
my fave way of having aji is aji-fry, deep fried aji.
though I don't know what it's like over there, sakana-ya-san ( the shop who specializes in dealing with various kinds of fishes) over here cuts it and removes certain parts of it in front of you. for example, if you say to them you are going to grill it, they specifically cut it for you so that all you need to do is to salt and grill.

saba (mackerel), iwashi (sardine), samma (saury) would really be good as sashimi. but they are gone much sooner.
they have to be seriously fresh if you eat them as sashimi. so we often do something to them, using say fire. I like tsumire very much with iwashi.

though the thing I'm worrying about is whether we are talking about the same kind of fish or not, like the possibility that what we call iwashi might not be exactly the same as what is sold over there by the name of sardine.

yes! you should have blue cheese!
it's really nice with french bread and some fruit, pear is really good and in season right now!
you can find some that is creamy like brie cheese and not so strong as stilton, for example...
put it on the bread and then take a bite of the fruit...think of it like having some main dish with a bite of rice...
it's the same idea...
you must eat it with some bread~!

i will check more about the fish...
thank you for the ideas and recommendations...
i have never seen saury...
but i think that the sardines are the same...
it's just that they are small and we don't have such a big fish eating culture, so people rarely bother with such small fish...
usually if we see them, they are in cans...

there used to be more fish mongers (fresh fish shops) but due to the low demand, most of them are gone...
i ahve amazing memories of being a kid and going to the fish store with my grandparents and all of the amazing fish on the crushed ice...
we would usually get squid and octopus there...
as i have said before, getting good fresh fish is tricky- or at least quite $$$ unless you have a restaurant...
i was spoiled as a kid when we used to catch a lot of fish ourselves in the ocean or we would get them right from the fishing boats...
that is why i prefer to buy the frozen ones now, because at least i know they are frozen when they are fresh...

i actually saw a program on how to de-bone the sardines and how to chop them for the fish balls, so that doesn't seem impossible now...

i will check again the next time i am at the japanese market...
*it is quite small, so while the selection is quite good, it is also quite limited...
i will do my best...gambatte!

arigato gozaimasu~!

 

[softgrey]

ok- maybe it's not exactly the same...?

Labeling laws are not standardized in America and many other regions regarding small canned fish. More than 20 varieties of fish are sold as sardines around the world, including herring (Americas), pilcards (Mediterranean), brisling (Norway), sprat (New Zealand, Australia, Europe) and Iwashi (Japan). Sardines are abundant in the seas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean with Spain, Portugal, France, and Norway being the leading producers of canned sardines.

liveto110.com

Characteristics:
Japanese sardines are bigger and much fattier compared to Mediterranean one.

trueworldfoods.com

 

[Melisande]

Yes the fish bags are cute. I like adults carrying humorous bags like that, especially with serious outfits.

Haha, that is an interesting point re the Heian new romantics.

Speaking of which, I think the Heian era had one of the most unabashedly romantic and aesthetic cultures in the history of humankind...I'm nostalgic for that Japan...and modernist writers like Kawabata Yasunari and Mishima were incarnations of such poetry and passion...although that heady, perfumed sensibility grew mostly extinct before my generation.

Yum, sashimi. Now I feel less bad about being confused as to the accurate translations...

 

[softgrey]

some accessories i got while i was in tokyo from mina perhonen's lower priced line...
sally scott...
i discovered it quite by accident and fell in love immediately...

a big square wool challis shawl/scarf and two carved pins/brooches...

ny.onlinestore

 

[runner]

^ great selections!


alright, to eat blue cheese with french bread, maybe like eating nattoh with rice.
though now I have no problem with things that are gorgonzola-flavoured.


aji-fry

y-miyadai

 

[runner]

apparently the pins currently available from mina perhonen are all brass ones.


this store seems to sell interesting little things, btw.


the brass pins from this season
mina-perhonen.jp

 

[runner]

silvers by kitano mariko


I like the sparrows on a wire.


kitanomariko.com
wonder3

 

[softgrey]

thank you for all of these, runner...
i almost bought some nattoh this weekend, but i decided not to this time...
it sounds interesting and i will try it one of these days...


i did find some mackerel at the big korean grocery on long island, so i got that...
one is already grilled and the other is sort of pickled with vinegar...
they had lots of great fresh fish, but i think it's good to try some already prepared so that i get the idea of it and then i can try my own preparations once i understand the ingredient better...

sweet pins...
i don't think that i would wear a brass pin or a colorful pin as much as a silver one...
though i think i like a brass ring or necklace...
i guess i just think the silver stands out best on a jacket...

the sparrows on the wire are charming...

and so are the plants...
i always like a nature theme for jewelry...
i sort of wish some of them weren't so "flat"...
i wish they were more 3 dimensional...
those are the ones that i like best...

that shop does have nice things...
thanks for the link...
i will explore further when i have more time...

 

[softgrey]

*sigh*...
the lucky lucky people in japan who have all of those issey shops...
i said that i thought the pleats please collection was getting better...
i was referring to the tops and jackets...
but now- this~!...
super amazing cropped pants!!!
OMG......

and this super duper amazing jumpsuit...
......
kill me now!

...

un- freaking- believable~!~!~!~!~!~!!!...

 

[runner]

about nattoh, there are a few types. but whatever they may be, it could be a bit dangerous to eat any of them with nothing. my fave way is like this below which should be finished with soy sauce.


I don't know well what joaquin berao is like recently, but they had lots of nature-themed 3D silver stuff when I used to see them in isetan. so maybe they still have some.
I believe you can find several button pins at chrome hearts, but they are not exactly what you are looking for.

here are some I could find just for reference from ugo cacciatori and joaquin berao


bordeaux
goo
hatanaka

 

[runner]

it seems that the pants and jumpsuit are from the series called "fluffy pleats".
both available in four colors below and come in two sizes that have the same waist and differ only in length, which might tell something about the trait of pleats please. sasuga miyake's customers, the most popular color so far is the one they call "purple". actually, as for the jumpsuit, the only color that is already sold out in both sizes at their official online store is the purple.

store.elttobtep.com

 

[Melisande]

Awww, the pins are lovely! I especially like the balsawood boxes embossed with the design they contain...so delicate and Japanese...

Haha, only in this thread would we find a photo of natto next to the photo of beautiful silver broaches. I personally LOVE natto <3
Best to stir it vigorously with your chopsticks until it gets foamy, before adding the shoyu (and mustard if you like) and mixing it further.

 

[softgrey]

it seems that the pants and jumpsuit are from the series called "fluffy pleats".
both available in four colors below and come in two sizes that have the same waist and differ only in length, which might tell something about the trait of pleats please. sasuga miyake's customers, the most popular color so far is the one they call "purple". actually, as for the jumpsuit, the only color that is already sold out in both sizes at their official online store is the purple.

store.elttobtep.com

sasuga - is right!
i can just imagine the sort of woman buying a purple balloon jumpsuit~...

i bet she has kooky red eyewear!


or maybe the purple is the first to sell out because they made fewer in that crazy colour...
i hope...
...

"fluffy pleats" is an adorable name...kawaii!
though i think i prefer "puffy pleats"...i like the say it sounds...
and that is how i will think of them from now on...


thanks for the info, runner!
especially about the sizing...
i love it!
one size fits all...and actually does!...

AND looks good on everyone...
brilliant design...

i think i may have to try them on...just to check how they have sized it...
i'm curious about what size they have chosen as the 'standard'...
i think they have them in the soho pleats please store...
sadly-the sales staff there is not so good...
but i'm too curious...
i am afraid to try them on though...
i may not be able to take them off...


not the jumpsuit though..
even i am not brave enough for that...
...